Dziwierz "Wordchants" the notion refres to creative urge through which anyone can express their personality. Dziwierz mens: accepting what makes people different (physically, mentally, economically, or socially), and so such expresses the essence and aim of our workshops.

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   Proposals for selected forms of theatre workshops

   After three years of collaboration with School-Counselling Centres, we invited counsellors conducting their own programmes of bibliotherapy and circus training to work alongside artists. This enriched our project and permitted us to expand our range of theatre courses. The activities we propose include the original Dziwierz workshop aimed at developing the imagination, as well as numerous, more theatre-oriented workshops. Our activities change every year in keeping with the main theme of the workshops and the objective of the courses.


   Encounters with Dziwierz - developing the imagination

   Conducted by: MAŁGORZATA SZYSZKA

   The Dziwierz Theatre workshop, inspired by Julian Tuwim's poem Kalinowe dwory, develops abstract thinking among participants. Workshop courses include: exercises taken from Mikhail Chekhov's method and from alternative theatre together with elements of educational role-playing. This combination of methods is designed to develop openness among participants, encourage them to search for their own internal Dziwierz and transform it in an act of creation. Workshops are for people who want to meet themselves and others in a concrete environment. Whenever the circumstances change it affects the nature of the encounter. To take part in this workshop, you have to want to learn about yourself and other people.


   Directing short theatre pieces

   Conducted by: MAŁGORZATA SZYSZKA

   The workshop was inspired by productions done with professional actors addressing subjects such as the bureaucratic environment we live in, the passions that rhythm inspires in people flirting on a train, the building of a public image. During the workshop participants will build constructions in space, find a rhythm, develop dramatic construction, and try to determine the most appropriate atmosphere for a given scene. The purpose is to find a way of expressing the metaphysics of theatre via simple on-stage activities.


   Encounter with the Emotions - Movement - Voice workshop

   Conducted by: KATARZYNA GARLICKA-KWIATKOWSKA

   Emotions - Movement - Voice workshops are conducted using paratheatrical methods and are designed to integrate the group, to build trust, to help express emotions by means of physical exercises, voice exercises and improvisation. During workshop courses participants use elements of role-play for dealing with conflict situations. They use also typical theatre exercises which help develop scenes later on. Young people are also taught some pantomime, and voice and breathing exercises.


   he VIT Method

   Conducted by: KATARZYNA GARLICKA-KWIATKOWSKA

   The VIT Method facilitates communication in various social groups, such as the family, in school, class etc. Workshop conducted using Video Training in Communication are mostly based on the analysis of different home and school situations previously recorded on video.


   Basic Acting Tasks

   Conducted by: SŁAWOMIR KULIGOWSKI

   This workshop involves choosing and working with literary texts. During the Dziwierz 2000 theatre workshop we worked with Bajka ["Fable"] by Ireneusz Iredyński and the story of Robinson Crusoe based on the novel by Daniel Defoe. The analysis of a literary text is the starting point for defining the basic acting tasks relating to the subject. Themes are elaborated in several improvised scenes based on the real-life experiences of participants. The scenes show different ways of solving these problems in the theatre and in real-life. The clarity with which emotions are expressed in this kind of theatre forces participants to make choices. It teaches them responsibility for their decisions and the tasks they had undertaken.


   Speech training courses

   Conducted by: JERZY ŁAZEWSKI

   During these workshops participants do relaxation exercises, breathing exercises, learn how to loosen up and develop selected muscles, practice their reciting and acting skills. After conducting basic diction exercises, the instructor goes over the problems encountered in the group and then suggests remedial exercises. He points out frequently committed errors and shows how to avoid them, the group then does exercises improving the articulation of various sounds. Courses are often conducted in a humorous manner, and their level of difficulty is adapted to the level of the group.


   Encounter with pantomime

   Conducted by: TOMASZ DUSIEWICZ

   During pantomime courses participants get to know this difficult genre. They practice on-stage movement and mime techniques. They learn to make "a theatre without words." Gestures, movement and music are used to bring different characters to life, and even to tell stories and play out events. This workshops consist of limbering up and relaxation, exercises improving physical fitness, co-ordination exercises, exercises in self-expression, and classical pantomime exercises. Apart from their educational aspect, the courses help improve co-ordination, precision of gesture, develop the imagination and concentration. Most importantly, these workshops, by exploring the possibilities of the body, teach self-awareness and self-discipline In search of an "organic line".


   Working with the body and the voice

   Conducted by: ALDONA JACÓRZYŃSKA

   Workshop participants perform individual and interpersonal exercises. Searching for an "organic line" is a way of discovering the physicality and sonorities of the body in an attempt to understand the relationship between the body, the voice and the psyche. The objective is also to encourage natural expression through voice and gesture in order better to understand psychosomatic and psychological factors governing behaviour.


   Circus education

   Conducted by: ANNA ADAMCZYK

   At these workshops young persons are taught circus skills. They learn the basics of acrobatics, clowning and juggling. The most popular exercises are building two- and three-person human pyramids, juggling with shawls, balls, plates, rings and clubs. At the first meeting participants make their own balls to juggle with during the workshop. Then they prepare the choreography and music for a circus show, which is a way of ensuring their involvement. Apart from circus exercises, participants also perform team-building activities which are relaxing and develop a sense of trust and security. These courses allow participants to gain a sense of achievement, discover their strengths, get physically fit, relieve emotional tension and get rid of aggression.


   Bibliotherapy

   Conducted by: ANNA SADOWSKA i GRAŻYNA SOBIESKA

   Bibliotherapy is an unconventional method of working with literary texts. We use paratheatrical methods in order to develop the personalities of our young participants and encourage them to share their experiences, feelings and thoughts. Our methods are also a way of relieving tension and fear. Alternative approaches to literary texts encourage students to read and explore worthwhile books they had not liked before. We want to teach them not only how to use computer programmes, encyclopaedias and dictionaries, but also how to cope with difficult situations in real life. The purpose is to provide an appealing alternative spare-time activity.